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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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SKETCHES OF THE LIYES AND SERVICES 



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Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax, 

NATIONAL P.EPXTCLICAN CANDIDATES FOR 

PEESIDEIIT AND VIOE PEESIDEHT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



ULYSSES S. G-RA.N'T. 




It is not surprising that great military- 
leaders in all ages and among every people 
should have been rewarded with the high- 
est public honors. Aside from the fact that 
the heroic qualities essential to military 
success are of all qualities the most uni- 
versally admired, there is the more cogent 
reason that no other public benofac'ors put 
a nation under such direct and mmifest 
obligations. The benefits conferred by the 
writer, the man of science, the inventor or 
the promoter of the useful arts, may some- 
times be more valuable than those confer- 
red by the victorious militar}' chicftan ; but 
when the successes of the latter are 
achieved in the service of liberty, or in de- 
fense of the very existence of a nation, they 
transcend all other forms of public bene- 
faction. Advancement in art, science, 
literature and material wealth, brings with 
it inestimable blessings, but the freedom 
of a people and their independent national 
existence are the broad foundation upon 
which all other blessings rest. When these 
are assailed by either a foreign or domestic 
foe, and a nation, after mustering all its 
forces, tinds its strength so equally matched 
that its fate trembles in the balance with 
the progress of the doubtful struggle, the 
man who calmly, courageously and skill- 
fully direct » its f trenous efforts to a success- 



ful issue, confers a boon which a century 
of peaceful services could not balance, and 
engraves his name forever upon the mem- 
ory of his people. 

Our own country has not been wantifig 
in gratitude to its military chieftains. 
Wasliington, Jackson, Taylor, Harrison 
and Pierce, have all been elected to the 
highest office in the gift of the people. In- 
deed we have been not only grateful but 
generous in this respect, measuring the 
services of our heroes ratlicr by the patriotic 
spirit in Avhich they were rendered than 
by the pressure of our need for them, or 
even their intrinsic value. Since the war 
for iudcpendeuce, in wliich Washington 
earned the affectionate title he will always 
bear, that of the "Father of his country," 
we liave been involved in no struggle by. 
which our national life was really imperil- 
led until the breaking out of the late rebel- 
lion. Yet we have very properly remem- 
bered and rewarded the elTorts of tiiose 
who in less critical conjunctures advanced 
the national interests and vindicated the 
national honor. 

But in history the great rebellion of 1861 
-5 will take rank with the revolutionary- 
war as to its vital bearing on the nation's 
fate. Like that it was a life and death 
struggle, and the heroes who contributed 
most to bring it to a successful issue will be 
among those who will live longest in the 
memory of posterity. Their services are 
of that order which a nation cannot afford 
to overlook To do so would not merely 
be deep ingratitude ; it would be an ex- 
ample whose injurious effects upon tL'> 
martial spirit of our people would be felt 
for all time to come. 

But there is no danger that our history 
will be defaced by such a record. Already ; 
the party which during the war was the - 
party of the Government as against its rel)el. 
foes has nominated as its candidate for the. 
Presidency the most illustrious Comman- 
der of the Union Armies, General Ulysses- 
S. Grant, Hi3 election in November next.- 



I {. 



2' 



is ns Mirc OS that the nrmics of the Union 
Mvc tr umjhed over the armies of treason; 
S >v iU n.is mark of national .eratUudc 
^••,11 1.0 a niting trilmte to the valo .k 
and r:>tH..tim of Grncra Grant, it vdl 
plnnl the seeds of future victories and lay 
1,0 f..uu<lation for future national glory 
throud. the ineentive to the cul ivation 
of similar qualities, vhich.it ^n'11 carry 
down to successive generations ot Amer- 

'^"The nibiect of our brief sketch was born 
on the 27111 of April, 1822 The place of 
his nativity was Point Pleasant, on the 
western bank of the Ohio river, now a vil- 
lace of about four hundred inhabitants, 
about twentv-five miles above Cincinnati 
His father," Jesse Root Grant moved 
thither from Pennsylvania nearly ball a 
century ago, the place being then but a 
frontier settlement. The boy Ulysses rc- 
ceivrd the rudiments of his education at the 
village school of Georgetown, Brown coun- 
ty, Ohio, about tweutj; miles from the 
p'lace of his nativity, whither his parents 
moved when he was about a year old. As 
a hoy, it is commonly said that he was in 
no way remarkable, and yet looking back 
we find that numerous incidents of his juve- 
nile life which have been preserved in 
the memories of those who knew him, 
reveal clearly enough the great qualities 
which have since shed such lustre on his 
name, and conferred upon his country ser- 
vices never to be forfrotten. 

Amonir the stories told of him as a boy 
is one which is sufllciently illustrative of 
his character. His father sent him with a 
team to fetch a load of logs from the 
woods, where he was to find some men 
who were to put on his load. lie found 
the logs but did not find the men. lie did 
not turn round and drive back without 
them, nor did he sit down and wait for the 
men, but set his wits to work to devise a 
way to get the load on himself, and through 
some ingenious mechanical contrivance he 
succeeded. In this net wc can see at once 
the energy, the skill to adapt means to 
ends, and the patient perseverance in the 
nxccul on of a pliin, which shines in the 
history of ihe great military commander. 

In ISoJ) Grant, then seventeen years old, 
entered the military academy at West 
Point. Of his radetdife there is little to 
be said, save tliat he parsed creditably 
thnmch the course of studios pursued at 
that institution. As n proof that his fond- 
ness for horses had not al)ated, it may be 
nienlii'iied that he attained tiie reputation 
of being the best rider in his class. In 
1843 he graduated in the same class with 
Ocn«-ral W. B. Franklin, General J. T. 
Quimby, General .T. J. Beynolds, General 
C. ('. Augur, General C'. S. Hamilton, 
General F. Steele, General Rufus Ingalls, 
and General H. M. .Tudnh. No second 
lieutenancy being vacant at the time of his 
graduation, be was commissioned Brevet 



Second Lieutenant in the 4th U. S_. Infan- 
try After some two years' service with 
his'repiment on the frontier, he accompa- 
nied it to Texas, wliithcr it was onleredin 
1845 at the bctrinning of our troubles with 
Mexico. He served all through the IMexi- 
can Avar, participating in all its imponant 
battles save that of Buena Vista— iii all, in 
short, as one of his eulogists observes, in 
which any one man could be." His first 
en<-a<'cmcnt was that of Palo Alio, fought 
unde? command of General Taylor, on the 
8th of May, 1840. There is one of his ex- 
ploits during tliis war which ought not to 
be omitted in this connection. At Monte- 
rey the brigade with which he served had 
nearly exhausted its amnmnition. They 
were in the heart of the city, fi'om which 
there was no egress but through a narrow 
street, the houses on one side of which 
were held by the Mexicans, who fired from 
the windows and the roofs. Some one 
must make his exit through this street and 
CO to Walnut Springs, a distance of four 
miles, for ammunition. It was eo perilous 
an adventure that the General in Command 
hesitated to order any one to undertake it, 
and called for some one to volunteer. 
Lieutenant Grant offered his services. 
Throwing himself upon a fleet horse, and 
adopting an expedient he had learned of 
the Indians during his frontier life, he 
caught his foot in the crupper of his saddle, 
and" grasping the mane with his hands, 
hung upon the side of his horse farthest 
from the Mexicans, and then spurring the 
animal to its utmost speed, safely ran the 
gauntlet. In an hour he returned with the 
desired nmmunitiou and an esccrt. He 
was repeatedly mentioned in the reports 
of his commanding officers for meritorious 
conduct ; was appointed first lieutenant in' 
the field for gallantry at Molino Del Rey, 
and brevetted captain for meritorious con- 
duct in the battle of Chepultepec. 

In 1848, after the Mexican war, Oapt. 
Grant married a Miss Dent, from near St. 
Louis, and for s;?yeral years lived in the 
monotonous routine of the peace estab- 
lishment; at Detroit, at Sackett's Harbor, 
and in Oregon. 

His full commission as captain reached 
him in August, 1853, but in 18.74, having 
made up his mind tiiat there was to be a 
long peace, he resigned his captaincy and 
set about establishing himself in civil life. 
His first atlenipt was to mai'a're a small 
farm to the south-west of St. Louis, where 
he used tn cut wood and liaul it to Carou- 
delet, delivering it himself. He diversified 
his year during summer, with acting as 
a collector of debts in that region. But 
there is nothing to show that lu^ enjoj^ed 
either wood cutting or dunnin/, and he 
certainly did not grow rich at I ;u m. In 
1859, he tried in vain to get (!'e appoiut- 
ment of county engineer ; an<l he then 
went into the leather trade, in partnership 
with his father, at Galma. Tiw ih-ui quick- 



ly attained high standing for intelligence 
and integrity, and the business, at the 
^ . breaking out of the war, was prosperous. 
It is narrated that Grant's determination 
to enter the service against the rebellion 
:; was taken and stated along with the draw- 
^ ing on of liis coat, instantly upon reading 
the telegram which announced the surren- 
der of bumter. He came into the store in 
^ the morning, read the dispatch, and as he 
took up his coat, whicli he had laid off, 
and put it on again, he observed in his 
quiet way, "The government educated me 
for the army, and although I have served 
through one war, I am still a little in debt 
to the government, and willing to dis- 
charge the obligation." 

Grant, bringing with him a company of 
■ volunteers that he had enlisted, in a few 
days appeared in the couucil-chamber of 
Governor Yates, of Illinois, and tendered 
bis services to the country as volunteer. 
The Governor immediately proposed to 
place him on his own staff, as mustering 
oflQcer of volunteers. 

Grant's brigadier's commission reached 
Iiim August 9th, 1861, and his first service 
under it was, a march to Irontou, in Mis- 
souri, for the purpose of preventing an at- 
tack from the rebel Jeff Thompson. 

Soon after this he was placed in com 
mand at the great central point of Cairo, 
which was the key of the West. 

One of his first acts was the capture of 
Paducah, a strong post on the Ohio River, 
near the mouth of the Tennessee River, in 
Kentuc'ivy, by which he at once gained 
possession of interior navigable waters, 
which the traitors had been using for their 
own purposes. The strength and decision 
with which he took possession of the town 
intimidated all rebel sympathizers. 

The remainder of Gen. Grant's military 
career must be narrated with a brevity wliich 
by no means does justice to the subject. 
It may be said to consist of five campaigns ; 
thos,e of Fort Donelson, Corinth and 
luka, Vicksburg, Cliattanooga, and Rich- 
mond. Of these each pointed out its com- 
mander as the best man for the next, until 
by simple upward gravitation of natural 
fitness, he rose to the exalted position of 
General of all the Armies of the United 
States. 

Grant's operations in Northern Missouri, 
his dash on Belmont, and his seizure of 
Paducah, though all creditable military 
services, were thrown into the shade by 
the brilliant Fort Donelson campaign, 
which opened the career of Union successes 
ill the West. 

Tlie Fort Donelson expedition was in- 
tended to break in two the rebel defensive 
line, which stretched the whole length of 
the State of Kentucky, from Columbus on 
the Mississippi, through Bowling Green, 
to Cumberland Gap. On this line, the 
rebels, under General A.S. Johnston, stood 
looking northward with threatening and 



defiant aspect. Grant saw that if ho could 
seize Forts Henry and Donelson, which 
had been built to shut up the Tonaessce 
and Cumberland rivers, the Uninn gun- 
boats could range up and down through 
the heart of rebeldom, and the Union 
armies with them, and that thus the great 
rebel defensive line, cut through in the 
middle, would be broken as a chain is 
when a link is destroyed. He tlierefore 
asked leave of Ms immediate superior, Hal- 
leck, to take the forts ; received it, con- 
certed his plan of attack with Admiral 
Foote, and moved from Cairo, February 
2d, 1802. Tlie success of this expedition 
is well known. It should be recorded, 
however, even in this short summary, that 
to Grant is due the credit of possessing the 
military tact and promptness that showed 
him when to make tlie decisive attack, anJ 
impelled him to do it. 

At daylight on Sunday, the 16th, Gen. 
Buckner, (whose two superior officers, 
Floyd and Pillow, had run away,) sent a 
flag of truce asking for commissioners to 
consider terms of capitulation. Grant re- 
plied by the bearer, in a letter, two ol 
whose phrases have become permanent 
contributions to tire proverbial part of the 
English language : 

" Yours of this date, proposing an armis 
tice, and appointment of commissioners to 
settle terms of capitulation, is just received. 
No terms other than unconditional and 
immediate surrender can be accepted. I 
propose to move immediately upon your 
works." 

Immediately after Donelson, Grant was 
made major general of volunteers by com- 
mission dated on the day of the fall of the 
fort, and was placed in command of the 
"Militaiy District of West Tennessee," 
consisting of a long triangle with its north- 
ern point at Cairo, its base at the South- 
on the Mississippi State line, and its sides 
the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. 
Thus promoted. Grant had already pushed 
southward. Foote's gunboats ascended 
the Cumberland, the troops kept abreast of 
them ; Clarksville, with twenty days' sub- 
sistence for Grant's whole army, was oc- 
cupied on February 20th, four days after 
the capture of Donelson ; and on the 23d, 
the advance of Buell's army, operating in 
conjunction with Grant's, entered Nash- 
ville. 

When the rebel military line already 
mentioned, running lengthwise of the 
State of Kentucky, was broken up by 
Grant's getting through and behind it at 
Fort Donelson, the rebel leaders sought to 
hold another east and west hue, coinciding 
nearly witli the southern line of Tennessee, 
along the important Memphis and Charles- 
ton Railroad, and their commander in the 
West, Albert Sydney Johnston, set about 
concentrating his forces at Corinth, oa that 
road. Halleck, by this time commanding 
the whole DepaTtment of the Mississippi, 



now prepared to attack Coriutb. It was 
with this desigu that Grant's army -was 
epnt up the Tcmiessec, and encamped at 
Shiloh. But the rebels did not wait to be 
attaclied. They advanced themselves, 
^vilh the bold and judicious design of beat- 
in-T the army at Shiloh, and then of march- 
ing northward, regaining all the ground 
they hud lost, and retaliating by an inva- 
sion of the States north of the Ohio. 

This hardy attempt was well nigh suc- 
cossfu!. The night before the battle of 
Shiloh, Beauregard, as the rebel council of 
war separated, had prophesied: "To-mor- 
row night we sleep in the enemy's 

camp" , , ,-, 

When the rebels first attacked. Grant 
was at Savannah, seven miles down the 
river. Hastening back, be was on tlie 
field at the earliest possible moment, and 
did whatever could be done to withstand 
the tremendous force of the rebel advance. 
When Buell came upon the held toward 
night, the aspect of alfairs so struck him 
that his first inquiry of Grant was, wnat 
preparations he had made for retreat. 

"I have not despaired of whipping them 
yet," was the thoroughly characteristic 
reply. One account adds, that when Buell 
urged that a prudent general ought to pro- 
vide for posibllities of defeat, aud repeated 
his inquiry. Grant pointed to his transports 
and said, "Don't you see those boats?" 
"Yes," said Buell, "but they will not 
carry more than ten thousand men, and 
we have more than thirty thousand." 
" "Well," returned Grant, "ten thousand 
are more than I intend to retreat with." 

The consequence of Shiloh was, the 
withdrawal of the rebels from their second 
line of defense, by their evacuation of Cor- 
inth on the 30th of May, seven weeks after- 
wards, the disappointment both of their 
great plan of a northern invasion and of 
their secondary plan of holding the Mem- 
phis and Charleston Railroad line, and the 
opening of all Tennessee, and the North of 
Mississippi and Alabama, to the Union 
forces ; the opening of the Mississippi river 
from Memphis down to Vicksburg; the sub- 
sequent movement which resulted in the bat- 
tle of MuUrecsboro and the securing of Chat- 
tanooga on the east; and the series of elTorts 
which culminated in the capture of Vicks- 
burg on the west. In short, this battle 
flung the Rebellion, in the Valley of the 
Mississippi, into a defensive posture, out of 
which it never escaped during the remain- 
der of the war. 

A few days after the proclamation which 
gave freedom to the slaves. General Grant 
expressed his concurrence in it after his 
sober fashion, by a dry phrase in a general 
order on the subject of organizing colored 
regiments. "It is expected," he says, 
"that all commanders \\ill especially exert 
themselves in carrying out the policy of 
the administration, not only in orgsiiiizing 
colored regiments, and rendering them 



effective, but also in removing prejudice 
against them." 

Vicksburg and Port Hudson were now 
the only remaining two of that series of 
positions, most of them really impregnable 
from the river, by which the rebels had 
throttled the great artery of western com- 
merce. 

His previous career naturally enough 
pointed out Grant for the command of the 
Vicksburg campaign; and the event showed 
that his absolute inability to let go where he 
had once taken hold, his inevitable contiu- 
uence in hammering at his object, were ex- 
actly the qualtiies needed. 

For a little while, General Halleck him- 
self came and commanded in person against 
Corinth, General Grant being second in 
command. 

Halleck being appointed General-in- 
Chief, Grant remained in command of the 
Army of the Tennessee, and of the mili- 
tary districts of Cairo, West Tennessee and 
Mississippi. The rebels knew as well as 
he that his face was set steadfastly towards 
Vicksburg ; and to begin with, they at- 
tacked his troops at Corinth and luka in 
great force and with tremendous fury, in 
order to break up his plans. At both places 
they were however defeated. In October, 
the rebel General Pemberton was placed 
in command in Northern Mississippi, and 
in the last two months of 18G2, took place 
Grant's first attempt against Vicksburg. 
The place had already been attacked by 
the two powerful fleets of Farragut and 
Davis, during seventy days, from the pre- 
ceding May 18th to July 27th ; but though 
25,000 shot and shell had been thrown into it, 
not one gun had been dismounted, and only 
seven men were killed and fifteen woun- 
ded; a result which showed plainly enough 
how the place was to be taken if at all. 

Grant's movement was to be by land, 
southward from his post at Corinth, direct- 
ly at Pemberton ; while Sherman was to 
get footing if possible close to Vicksburg. 
The loss of Grant's main depot of supplies 
at Holly Springs, midway in his progress, 
broke down his part of the plan, and Pem- 
berton then reinforcing Vicksburg, repuls- 
ed Sherman and broke down the rest of it. 
Grant now established his head-quarters 
at Memphis, January 10th, 18G3, and 
moved his army towards his goal by water. 
On the 2d of February, he reached Young's 
Point, a little above the city ; his army 
was already there and at Milliken's Bend 
just below. ' 

His purpose was one ; to get his array 
across to the Vicksburg side and thence to 
prosecute his attack. First he tried a canal 
across the neck of the river peninsula oppo- 
site Vicksburg. Through this, if he could 
get the water to accept it as a new bed, he 
could take his forces below the city, out of 
reach of its guns, aud cross over. But a 
flood burst into the unfinished canal and 
drowned out thr plan. Then he tried to 



•■^5 



clear out a longer water route to do the 
same thing, through a string of bayous and 
I'ivei's back in the Louisiana swamps. A 
fall iu the river broke up this plan, as a 
rise had done that before it. Then he tried 
a longer route of the same sort, beginning 
at Lake Providence, seventy-five miles 
north of Vicksburg, but it was found im- 
practicable. Then resorting to the east 
side of the Mississippi, he sent a naval ex- 
pedition to try to penetrate Yazoo Pass, and 
thence through the inconceivable tangle 
of the Yazoo swamps and their rivers, to 
get behind the outer rebel defences north 
of Vicksburg, and so make a lodgment. 
But this plan was checkmated by the hasty 
erection in the heart of the swamp region, 
at the junction of the Tallahachie and 
Yazoo rivers, of a powerful fort, which the 
fleet tried in vain to silence. Then he sent 
another fleet to try another part of the same 
monstrous tangle, by way of the Big Sun- 
flower river, but that effort miscarried much 
as the preceding one did. 

The obstinate commander had now tried 
six assaults upon his prey, and had been 
busily working at his failures for nearly 
four months. March 29th, 1863, he set his 
forces in motion for the seventh and suc- 
cessful effort. This was by what he had 
iu fact recognized from the beginning as 
the best line of operation — by the south. 
It was however also the most difficult. 
As one of the historians of the war observes, 
a measure of the difilculties offered is given 
by the fact that Gen. W. T. Sherman was not 
disposed to advise it. The same writer 
adds, "It can only be said that there was 
tliat in the composition of General Grant's 
mind that prompted him to undertake that 
which no one else would have adventured." 

Colonel Grierson's cavalry force was 
now launched down from Tennessee to go 
tearing through the whole interior of Mis- 
sissippi, and thoroughly frighten all its 
people, while he should break up, as he 
circuited far arcKind Vickburg, as many as 
possible of the railroads, bridges, and other 
means of communication, leading from the 
city back into the country, or from one part 
ofthe State to another. Grant's own troops 
moved down the river a total distance of 
seventy-five miles. The fleet and transports 
ran the batteries and ferried the army across 
at Bruiusburg ; Grant moved at once three 
miles inland, and May 1st, beat General 
Bowen at Port Gibson. Then ho moved 
eastward, drove Johnston out of Jackson, 
an important centre for railroad lines, and 
broke up all the communications in the 
neighborhood ; then turning short about, 
he approached Vicksburg by forced 
.marches ; on May 10th, met Pemberton at 
Champion Hills and defeated him ; follow- 
ed him sharply up, forced the passage of 
the Big Black, drove Pemberton into the 
city, and on May IGth had formed his lines 
of attack. After a vigorous siege, whose 
progress attracted the attention of the 



whole civilized world, the place surren- 
dered with 27,000 men, on July 4th, 1863. 
The whole number of prisoners made since 
crossing the Mississippi was 37,000. This 
great achievement freed the Mississippi, 
cut the rebellion in two, and rendered it 
out of the question for the rebels to hold 
the Mississippi Valley. 

General Grant's commission as major- 
general in the regular army was dated 
July 4, 1863, the day of the occupation of 
Vicksburg. In the succeeding October, he 
was placed iu command ofthe great "Mili- 
tary Division ofthe Mississippi," consisting 
ofthe three "Departments" of the Ohio, 
the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, and 
including the command of four strong 
armies; his own, Hooker's, and those ol 
the Cumberland and the Ohio. 

Grant's next victory was that of Chatta- 
nooga, November 25, 1863, which substan- 
tially repaired the ill effects ofthe defeat of 
Rosecrans at Chickamauga, and assured 
the possession of the mountain citadel from 
which, in the next spring, Sherman sallied 
on his way to Atlanta. 

On March lOih, 1864, Grant was appoin- 
ted Lieutenant General, and placed iu com- 
mand of all the armies of the United 
States. 

The Union armies, as Grant himsulf had 
already remarked, in his dry way, had 
hitherto "acted independently, and with- 
out concert, like a baulky team, no two 
pulling together." 

Henceforward in his single strong hand, 
those armies worked together. 

In the campaign of 1864, the first act 
was the battle of the "Wilderness. It was 
after six days battle that Grant sent to 
"Washington the dispatch which ended 
with the grim remark, " I propose to fight 
it out on this line if it takes all summer." 
Snotts3rlvania followed, and Cold Harbor ; 
the investment of Petersburg, and that 
long series of assaults, forays, entrench- 
ments and battles which ended with the 
surrender of Lee and the explosion of the 
Rebellion. 

Since the close of the war General Grant's 
life, although comparatively inactive, has 
not been wanting in valuable services to 
his country or in proofs of his exalted pat- 
riotism. The most conspicuous of these 
were furnished in connection with his oc- 
cupancy of the "War Department, and the 
removal of Sheridan. His acceptance of 
the position of Secretary of War ad interim, 
after the suspension of Secretary Stanton, 
in August, 1867, although criticised by 
some Republican newspapers at the time, 
was a step taken with the full concurrence 
of Mr. Stanton, and with a view to reseiT- 
ing the control of that important depart- 
ment for the benefit of the loyal people of 
the country. "When, in January, 1868, 
the Senate refused to acquiesce in the 
President's suspension of Mr. Stanton, and 
restored liim to the War Office, it was the 



action of General Grant aloue which gave 
elTccl to the resolution of that body. Had 
be not retired from the Department and 
permitted Secretary Stanton to obtain pos- 
Icssiou before the President had an op- 
portunity to adopt measures to preven 
tliHt occurrence, his reinstatemeut would 
have been resi.sled. This Mr. Johnsoa 
subsequenllv avowed iu his correspondence 
with General Grant, wherein he severely 
censured the latter fur his failure to take 
part in the conspiracy to prevent Mr. btan- 
ton'8 restoration. 

Of all the papers emanating from Gener- 
al Grant, there ia none, perhaps, which 
met with a warmer response or more 
completely demonstrated his hearty sym- 
pathy with the loyal masses of his country- 
men, than his eloquent letter to the Presi- 
dent, protesting against the removal of Gen. 
Sheridan. In that, as in his letter accept- 
ing' his nomination for the Presidency by 
the National Republican Convention, he 
gives utterance to the idea ever prominent 
in his mind, that the will of the people 



should be the supreme rule of action to an 
administrative officer. 

The last-mentioned letter, brief as it is, 
contains abundant proof that General Grant 
isjustthemau the country wants for its 
next President. Its last four words:— "Let 
us have peace," will touch an answer- 
u^ chord in every heart, and the whole 
country will feel that if there is one man 
among the thirty-five millions who nov/ 
compose the American people, capable ot 
securing us that blessing and the general 
prosperity and happiness which are its 
natural concomitants, that man is General 
Ulysses S. Grant. The people have wit- 
nessed his unpretending patriotism, his 
singleness of purpose, his freedom from 
ambition or vain display, and they perceive 
that great as he is in his character and 
achievements, he still feels himself to be 
one of themselves, a man who may be 
trusted to respect and to execute their will 
in any position in which he maybe placed. 
So feeling, they will elect him as tlieir Pres- 
ident by an overwhelming majority. 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 




General William Colfax, the grand- 
father of Hon. ScnuYLEn Colfax, was a 
citizen of New Jersey and was the command- 
ing ofllcor of Gen. Wasliinglon's life guards 
throughout the RcvoUitionary War. His 
holding that very confidential and respon- 
sible |)ost is sufllcient evidence of his 
Btcadincss, sense, courage and discretion. 
It is tt further toatiuionial to tlie same effect, 
that Gen. Colfax latterly became one of 
the most intimate personal friends of the 
crcat revolutionary chieftain. Gen. Col- 
tax's wife was Hester Schuyler, a cousin 
of Gen. I'liilip Scliuyler. 

General Colfax's son, Schuyler Colfax, 
the father of the Speaker, was an officer of 
one of the New York city banks, and died 
four months before his son was born. 

Scliiiyler Colfax was born in New York 
city, March 23, 1823, and was the only son 
of his widowed mother. lie was taught 



in the common schools — finished his edu- 
cation at the high school then standing in 
Crosby street, and at ten years had re- 
ceived all the school training he ever had. 
He now became a clerk in a store, and 
after three years removed to Indiana with 
his mother and her second husband, a Mr. 
Matthews. They settled in St. Joseph 
County. Here the youth for four years 
again served as clerk in the village of New 
Carlisle. When 17 years old ho was ap- 
pointed deputy county auditor, and for the 
better fulfilment of his official duties, ho 
now removed to the county town, South 
Bend, where he has lived ever since. 

In iS45, he became proprietor and editor 
of the " St. Joseph Valley Register," the 
local paper of his town. South Bend. This 
was the beginning of his independent 
career, and if hope had been absent, the 
prospect would have looked meagre 
enough. He was a youth of just over 
twenty-one, and he had two hundred and 
fifty subscribers. But the youthful editor 
had hope, and what was far more im- 
portant, remarkable tact and capacity for 
his laborious profession. By good fortune 
and perseverance, he was able to tide over 
the first dangerous crisis for a poor man 
who undertakes a large literary enterprise 
— the period of maximum debt, so fatal to 
new periodicals. This is a point like the 
darkest hour just before day, when the 
newspaper or magazine is, very likely, 
B'eadily gaining in reputation and even in 
circulation, but when the circulation has 
not quite reached tlie paying point, and 
the paper bills have been postponed to the 



latest possible moment, wliilc the constant 
outgoes for paying the journeymen, and 
for the other weekly office expenses, have 
kept up their monotonous drain. With 
Mr. Colfax this period was at the end of 
the first year of his paper, when he owed 
$1,375. The concern gradually became 
productive, however. A few years after- 
wards the ofhce was burned down, and the 
uninsured editor was left to begin business 
over again. He did so, and has earned a 
very comfortable living by it, though he is 
by no means a rich man. 

Mr. Colfax's first nomination for Con- 
gress was in 1851, and he was beaten, 
though only by 200 majority, in a district 
strongly opposed to him in politics. His 
competitor was that Dr. Graham N. Fitch 
who was afterwards the congenial yoke- 
fellow of Mr. Bright in the U. S. Senate, 
on the side of the South, during Mr. Bu- 
chanan's presidency. Mr. Colfax's friends 
were of opinion, however, that the fatal 
200 against him were illegal votes, imported 
by means of a certain railroad then con- 
structing in those parts, and from among 
the laborers employed upon it. In 1852 
he was a delegate to the Whig National 
Convention that nominated Gen, Scott, 
and as at the convention of 1848, was a 
secretary. He declined a second congres- 
sional nomination, and his district, which 
he had lost by only 200, was now lost by 
1,000 

Mr. Colfax was elected to the 34th Con- 
gi-ess by 2,000 majority, i he previous major- 
ity of his competitor having been 1,000 the 
other way. 

It was during the session of 1856, that 
Mr. Colfax delivered his well known and 
pr;werful speech on the bogus " Laws " of 
Kansas, imposed uu that State by the fraud 
and violence of the pro slavery ruffians of 
those days. This speech, a WDrd-for-w^rd 
quotation of clause after clause of this in- 
famous code, accompanied with a plain, 
sober and calmly toned explanation of the 
same, produced a very great effect, and 
was considered so able a summary of tiie 
case involved, that during the Presidential 
campaign of that j^ear, a half million copies 
of it were distributed among the voters of 
the United States. By way of driving 
quite home the truths of the case, Mr. Col- 
fax, where he quoied the clause Avhich in- 
flicted imprisonment at hard lahov with ball 
and chain, upon any one who should ever 
say "That persons liave not the right to 
hold slaves in this Territory," lifted from 
hia desk and showed to the House an iron 
ball of the statutory dimensions (viz: 
inches diameter, weighing about 30 lbs.) 
apologizing for not also exhibiting the six- 
foot chain prescribed along with it. Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, afterwards Vice Presi- 
dent of the Rebels, who sat close by, asked 
to take this specimen of pro-slavery jewelry 
for freemen, and having tested its weight, 
would have returned it. But Mr. Colfax 



smilingly asked him to hold it for him until 
he was through speaking, and while the 
pro-slavery leader dandled the decoration 
proposed by his friends for men guilty of 
free speech, Mr. Colfax, in a few telling 
sentences, showed that Washington and 
Jefferson and Webster and Clay had said 
the words which would have harnessed 
them, a quarternion of convicts, into the 
chain-gang of the border ruffians. 

Mr. Colfax's constituents, extremely 
satisfied with his course and abilities, re- 
nominated him by acclamation while he 
was in Washington this year, and he was 
re-elected after the usual joint canvass, al- 
though the presidential election of that fall 
went against his party. That such would 
be the result, Mr. Colfax had confidently 
predicted, as a consequence of the third- 
party nomination of Mr. Fillmore. But 
he worked with none the less zeal for his 
principles and his party. He had breadth 
and soundness and clearness of view 
enough to sight along the rising plane of 
the successive anti-slavery votes of 1844, 
1848, 1552, and 1856, and to see that the 
Party of Freedom and right was the Party of 
the Future ; and while doubtless he would 
have been just as stf-adfast in doing right 
if he had no hope of a right-doing govern- 
ment, yet the very best of men works with 
a more cheery strength when, to use the 
words of the story, he can " see the chips 
fly." It was with sentiments of lofty res- 
olution that he wrote, some months before 
the Republican nomination was made, and 
just after that of Mr. Fillmore: "Whether 
the Republican ticket shall be successful 
or defeated this year, the duty to support 
it, to proclaim and defend its principles, 
to arm the consrience of the nation, is none 
the less incumbent. The Republican move- 
ment is based on Justice and Right, conse- 
crated to Freedom, commended by the 
teachings of our Revolutionary Fathers, 
and ckn)anded bytiie extraordinary events 
of our recent history, and though its tri- 
umphs may be delayed, nothing is more 
certain" 

In 1S58 Mr. Colfax was agiiin nominated 
by acclamation, and re-elected by a tri- 
umphant majority, and so he has been in 
every election since, carrying his district 
against untiring and desperate and enor- 
mous etforts directed against him specially 
as a representative man, not merely by his 
local opponents, but by the whole torces 
of eveiy kind which the party opposed to his 
could concentrate within bisdistrict. Such 
a scries of political successes shows not 
only the power of the public speaker, and 
the discretion of the politician, but shows 
also a hearty and vigorous unity of noble 
thoughts between the constituency and the 
representative, and also a magnetic per- 
sonal attractiveness which holds fast for- 
ever any friend once made. Mr. Colfax 
hath friends, because he hath showed him- 
self friendly. 



Durins the 86th Congress, (December, 
1859, to Slarcb, ISCl) Mr. Colfax was chair- 
man of the Committee on Post Ollices and 
Po«t Roads, and diil much and uselulwork 
in kof-piug alivr and healthy the somewhat 
unwi. Illy machinery of that important in- 
fititution. He was iu particular successful 
in promotina: the extension of mail facili- 
ties umonp the now mining communities 
in the Kocky Mountain gold fields, and in 
jn-ocuring the passairc of the very important 
hills for fhc D lily Overland Mail, and far 
the Overland Telegraph to San Francisco, 
by way of Pike's Peak and Utah. 

It was ft matter of course that Mr. Colfax 
should go with all his heart into the great 
struggle of 18C0. lie fell and understood 
with unusual earnestness and clearness the 
importance of the principles involved, and 
the haz:irds of the political campaign. Into 
a paragraph or two written some time be- 
fore the Chicago nomination, he conden- 
sed a whole code of political wisdom, and 
can now be seen to have pointed out Abra- 
ham Lincoln as the best candidate, by de- 
scribing the political availability and ethi- 
cal soundness of the position Mr. Lincoln 
then occupied. He wrote : 

'•We differ somewhat from those ardent 
contemporaries who demand the nomina- 
tion of their favorite representative man, 
whether popular or unpopular, and who 
insist tliat this must be done, even if we 
arc defeated. "We do agree wilh them in 
declaring that we shall go for no man who 
docs not prefer free labor and its exten- 
sion to slave labor and its extension — 
Avho though mindful of the impartiality 
which should characterize the Kxecntive 
of the whole Union, will not fail to rebuke 
all new jilots for making the government 
the propagandist of slavery, and compel 
promptly and efficiently the sui)pression 
of that horrible slave-trade which the 
whole civilized world has banm^d as in- 
famous, piratical and accursed. But in a 
Hcpubliian National Convention, if any 
man could be found. North, South, East or 
West, whose integrity, whose life, and 
whose avowals rendered him unquestiona- 
bly safe on these questions, and j-et who 
could yet poll one, two or three hundred 
thousand votes more than any one else, we 
believe it would be both wisdom and duty, 
patriotism and policy, to nominate him by 
acdamation and tluis render the contest 
an assured success from its very opening. 
Wc hope to sec 18C0 realize the famed 
motto of Augustine— ''In csscutials unity, 
in non-essentials liberty, in all tiling's 
charity." ° 

That is Tcry broad and sound sense. It 



was iu exact accordance with this doctrine 
and with these intimations as to who was 
the right man, that Mr. Lincoln was uom- 
inatecf, according to the desire of Mr. Col- 
fax's heart ; and in the coming campaigu 
in his own very important State of Indiana, 
he did most valuable service iu assurin:j; 
the victory, 

Upon Mr. Lincoln's election, a very 
powerful influence, made up of publio 
sentiment, the efforts of newspapers, tlic 
urgent recommendations of governors ami 
legislatures, and in particular of the re- 
publican presidential electors, members ot 
legislature, congressmen, and whole body 
of voters of Indiana, united to press upon 
the new President the appointment of Mr. 
Colfax to the office of Post Master General. 
Mr. Lincoln however had resolved to make 
Hon. C. B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary 
of the Interior, and could give no other 
Cabinet place to that State. But as long 
as he lived, he loved and respected and 
trusted Mr. Colfax ; and it is on record 
that "he rarely took any steps affecting the 
interests of the nation without making his 
intentions known to Mr. Colfax, in whose 
judgment he placed the utmost confidence." 
Continuing in Congress, Mr. Colfax 
served with efficient and patriotic fervor in 
his place, and in December, 18G3, was 
chosen, and has since remained speaker. 
In this extremely responsible, important 
and laborious place, his official career has 
been openly visible to all men, while only 
those among whom he presides can compe- 
tently appreciate the rare personal and ac- 
quired qualifications which he has so ably 
exercised — the even good temper, the cx- 
haustless patience, the calm prompt pres- 
ence of mind, the immense range of honest 
questions and sly quirks of parlimcntary 
law which he must have at his tongue's 
end ; even the vigorous health and endur- 
ing physical frame which enables him to 
sit through session after seasion, day after 
day, witliout losing his readiness or de- 
cisiveness of thought and action. 

He has, however, maintained and even 
increased his reputation as a wise and just 
legislator, a most useful public servant, a 
shrewd and kindly chairman, and a skillful 
parlimcntarian. His duties have not been 
in their nature so brilliant as the deeds ot 
our great commanders by land or by SiCa ; 
nor so prominent even as the labors oi 
some civilian officials ; but they have been 
such as to require the greatest and most 
solid and u.seful of the civic virtues, cour- 
age, integrity, forethought, justice, and 
steady inexhaustible industry. 



CHBOKICLE PRINT., WAanrNGTON, D. C, 



LiUKHKt Ul- LUNOKtbb 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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